Space shuttle Atlantis made its final landing early this morning, marking a successful mission as well as the end of an era.

NASA has now officially retired its entire Space Shuttle fleet, which consisted of Space shuttle's Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis. Space shuttle Discovery made its final mission in February 2011, Space shuttle Endeavour completed its last jaunt to space in June 2011, and now, Space shuttle Atlantis has returned home to enjoy retirement as well.

Atlantis landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:57 a.m. EDT. The 13-day mission to the International Space Station was nearly flawless, with only a few computer glitches that were easily managed. This was Atlantis' 33rd voyage.

While the crew was happy to be home safe, it was also an emotional arrival due to the fact that NASA's Space Shuttle program, which began on April 12, 1981, is now closed after 30 years of service.

"The space shuttle changed the way we viewed the world, and it changed the way we view our universe," said Chris Ferguson, Atlantis' commander. "There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing is indisputable: America is not going to stop exploring. Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and our ship, Atlantis."

Ferguson led a crew of three, including pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim. Their mission to the International Space Station provided supplies, equipment and food as well as over 9,400 pounds of spare parts and other supplies.

"We're going to put Atlantis in a museum now, along with the three orbiters, for generations that will come after us to admire and appreciate," said Ferguson. "And hopefully, I want that picture of a six-year-old boy looking up at a space shuttle in a museum and saying, 'Daddy, I want to do something like that when I grow up,' or 'I want our country to do fantastic things like this for the continued future."

The retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet means that the U.S. has no way of sending humans into space. Russia is the only means of getting to space for American astronauts at this point.

The curtain has closed on NASA's Space Shuttle fleet, but we haven't stopped looking through our telescopes and asking, "What if?" quite yet. The next step is to travel to an asteroid by 2025, and Mars in 2030.

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How coincidental that Atlantis ends the shuttle era on the 42nd anniversary of Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the moon.

I'm mixed on the retirement of NASA's manned space flight. I would hate to see the experience of those who designed and operated the shuttles leave; even if you want to restart the program in 10 years many of these people won't be available anymore and you'll spend time and money just getting back to the point you left off at.

That being said, manned space flight is hugely expensive. In FY2010, the ISS/Shuttles are 1/3 of NASA's budget, Exploration was another 20%. I'd like to think retiring the shuttles would allow more science to be done, although given recent trends I'm sure most will go to Earth Sciences (aka, trying to observe global warming).

Even in their FY2012 documents, NASA has $2.8B budgeted for the ISS in 2012, $3.0B in 2013, $3.0B in 2014, $3.1B in 2015 and $3.2B in 2016. This for a station that was intended to be deorbited in 2016 and may get a reprieve to 2020. Freeing up that cash would let NASA more than double their space science programs with money to spare.